Birth weight correlation with baby gender?

Sorry, chaos here so have not read all replies... may have been said. My midwife tells me there is increasing evidence around maternal diet and baby weight in that high GI diets tend to produce big (chubby) babies. A super low GI diet will not creat an underweight baby... will just prevent bub from getting big peaks in blood sugars which is converted to fat.

Low GI diets are also seeming to correlate with (she tells me... have not read the research myself, but i do trust this woman) spontaneous onset of labour -as in high fluctuations in blood sugar may prevent or delay labour and increase risk of induction - and more 'efficient', uncomplicated labours.

Interesting, Santosha. I looked it up and my diet is made up almost entirely of low GI foods, with the very occasional medium GI food. I don't eat anything on the high GI list I read. Might explain my small babies after all!

That explains my big babies. :doh: :lol:

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That explains my big babies. :doh: :lol:

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:lol: me too.

I recently bought a book called "Lose Your Mummy Tummy" which was highly recommended to help with repairing muscle separation. Apparently the same author has a book on pre-natal exercises to help avoid damage too.

so maybe low GI is worth looking into. does anyone have a good chart or article on what is low GI? is that similar to diet for GD?

eta justreadback Santosha s post, Ds wasn't chubby, everything was in proportion he was just big itms. he certainly didn't look as big as his weight. not like the 'world's largest baby' photos with chubby cheeks or rolls. wonder if this is an argument for diet or against? I was a bigger baby, just under 10lb, which I know often goes along with having bigger babies.

eta2 - I have tummy support bands and wear them daily. wasstillwearingthem from previous pregnancy, but are also looking into the src shorts. not sure how much the pregnancy shorts will help because it looks like they go below the tummy, but still might give them a go. definitely getting the recovery shorts this time.

I think genetics play a pretty big role. My babies have been different weights, but all relatively small, regardless of how much weight I gained, or how far along I was when they were born (all between 38 and 40+1, although my 38 weeker is my smallest one, so that does have some impact for sure.)
A friend of mine had one boy who was huge at birth - big head and shoulders, shoulder dystocia, etc. Her girls were smaller, and she thought it was a boy/girl thing. But then, her second son was much more petite. One boy (and the girls) took after her side, the other took after his father. It can be really hard to predict and/or control!

As far as your tummy muscles go, statistically speaking, anyone who has had 2 babies will have some degree of muscle separation, and that can make your back and belly sore. If you're in pain, or worried about that starting, get a good belly support. I have a Blanqi pregnancy support tank that I've worn daily from about 12 or 14 weeks, and it has made a BIG difference, but I'm sure there are lots of good options you could look into. Exercise to strengthen your other muscles, and wear good shoes to help your back and hips out.
Hope that helps!

If you google 'bump to baby diet' there's a website that provides the basic info about GI and pregnancy and details of the associated book which I borrowed from my local library. Well worth a read IMO.

My diet is pretty low GI naturally, but through links from the site Santosha recommended i found the info below, so worth keeping on eye on it.

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An Australian study of over 60 healthy, pregnant women who were assigned to
either a low GI diet, or a conventional healthy, high fibre diet for the 2nd and
3rd trimesters of pregnancy found that infants born to the women following
the low GI diet were significantly lighter, and had a lower percentage of body fat,
compared with the babies of mothers following the conventional diet. More
importantly, they were 10 times less likely to deliver a large baby (greater than the
90th percentile), suggesting that a low GI diet could also reduce the chances of
childhood obesity.

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That does actually concern me a little. I wouldn't want to deliver a baby with a big head and shoulders, (OUCH!) but a baby should have a good amount of body fat! They can't shiver to stay warm, and their brains are still developing. They need some fat.

Also, is there any proven relationship between birth weight and childhood obesity? I have to think that diet and lifestyle are going to be the biggest factors in determining whether your child is obese. If you give them a low GI diet in later childhood, I imagine they will be a healthy weight, but I don't think that a strictly low GI diet is healthy for an infant/toddler, with their short little bowels, or that simply eating low GI in pregnancy and having a lower birth weight baby will determine whether he/she is obese in childhood.

None whatsoever.

Ds1 - 9lb 7oz
Dd1 - 7lb 9oz
Ds2 - 7lb 10oz
Dd2 - 8lb 13oz
Dd3 - 9lb 3oz

cricket i dont think there is a strong connection between them either. for as big as my babies were, they are all average/normal weights now. if anything two of them would be classed as underweight

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cricket i dont think there is a strong connection between them either. for as big as my babies were, they are all average/normal weights now. if anything two of them would be classed as underweight

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Agreed here, although my DD is only two so has a way to go yet! She was big when she was born, 9lb4. Now she's dead middle for both height and weight, and very comparable to the neighbours little girl who is three months older and was tiny when born.